


The Lethifold's Embrace

by wanabi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Asphyxiation, Gen, Lethifold - Freeform, Vore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-26 04:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4990576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanabi/pseuds/wanabi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luna converses with her shroud.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lethifold's Embrace

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [tamlane](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamlane/pseuds/tamlane) in the [HP_Halloween_Prompt_Meme](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HP_Halloween_Prompt_Meme) collection. 



> **Prompt:**  
>  Death and the Maiden, HP-style. Interpret any way you like.
> 
> \--
> 
> I'd wanted to write something like this for a while so I used this prompt as my excuse, thanks! It's very loosely based on Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" lyrics, in a tangential way. The author recommends against aestheticizing death, but that's what fiction is for.

Perhaps if she hadn't used her wand before going to bed, Luna would have slept with it leaning beside her. But she'd transfigured the ferns lying between two stout trees into a hammock, a simple luxury that still afforded her a view of the equatorial constellations through the trees. Below the spellbound ropes, the wand lay quietly; above her, insects and bats called to each other. After a long day of combing the jungle for any evidence the Styflumers had been active, sleep came easily.

She woke at the touch of something soft wrapped around her feet, as if a blanket had appeared from nowhere during the night. Blinking, she yawned, and kicked at the layer, to no discernible end; it only nestled closer around her legs. Luna bent and reached for her wand, but the weight of the interloper was spread out to prevent any movement of the hammock.

"Hello?" she called, into the still night.

The creature, if a creature it was, gave no response. Again, Luna tried to shift her weight to the other side, but the hammock was held firm. Moments later, it had slid almost imperceptibly up her legs.

"No," she snapped, this time not curious but demanding. "Get off, get _off_! Look--well, feel, I suppose, the forest is full of nutritious creatures, full-grown and ripe and fit for harvest time. Go!"

The dark form only nudged itself forward.

"I know what you are, you foul, skeletal, rag!" said Luna. "I have a wand--I've fought Dementors--I'll drive you off!"

She tensed her legs against the shape, which gave a ripple that quickly faded past her. And then--perhaps amid rather than breaking the silence, or echoing from somewhere deep within her--came an answer, half-musical and half-grave. _Oh, no. No, that's not right. I am no skeleton, no bumpy bones for me. And I dare not part you from your soul; it will be yours alone, forever._

Luna blinked, the chance for investigation too rewarding to ignore even then. "You speak?"

_I have no tongue to fumble human words with. If you can hear my song, it is because you are unusually perceptive. Or quite mad and imagining this all, of course._

The distinction, she concluded, was not her priority. "You'll never kiss me, you monster."

_Oh, but of course not! You do not mistake me for my cousins, I hope? The Dementors may take to kissing, but I find it vulgar, a pastime for grown men and women. We children at heart merely need to hug each other close to display our tenderness._

The Lethifold climbed over her knees. Wandless, Luna shouted anyway, "Expecto Patronum!"

_Little one, do not struggle. You know there is no magic for you, not without your tree-shard, not in your past. What memory could you conjure that would dissuade me? Was there joy in your schoolmates' derision, their cruelty? In your grief or your isolation? But all this will soon be gone forever._

"They will not miss me?"

_Not at all. You will nevermore be outcast, abandoned._

"Oh," Luna breathed, as moment by moment her legs slipped into the shadow. "But I suppose--if there's nothing left of me, after all--it must be a shame, the not knowing..."

_When you are consumed, there will be no more doubt, only certainty. You have done nothing to deserve that anguish, you see?_

"And the others have?"

 _Many. Perhaps some noontide someone else will uncover your old treeshard--I have no need to eat those, it would only choke me. But enough about others._ In a shudder, the Lethifold slid past her hips. _Here you are alone._

With each rise and fall of her chest Luna felt conscious of the space she was filling, bearing the Lethifold up even as it continued to claim her. Though she could sense its weight, it did not yet ache to breathe.

The Lethifold paused when it drew near to her hands, which she'd clenched in fists, lapping at them quietly. For a moment she wondered how long she could endure like that, her lower body already far beyond her control, but then came that insistent murmur. _Give me your hand_ , it sang--could monsters _beckon_?--and she felt herself relaxing.

Without lingering, the Lethifold rose to her neck. _There you are, beautiful one. All tucked in safely._

"My name was Luna," she said.

 _Luna? And I am--_ For a moment nothing was intelligible, only the _shsshsssh_ of the forest, and the friction below her chin. _What friend could be as constant as me, and as gentle?_

She hummed to herself as if busy thinking of an answer, but the Lethifold shut her lips as it crept past them. _Oh, it may sting a little. Try not to flail._

The Lethifold's fringe grazed her nostril, and Luna gave a small whimper into the chill--how could she have imagined death as forbiddingly distant? _Don't be afraid. I will not rush, but will savor you as you deserve--I know well that for you, this is an eternity._

In spite of herself, she felt herself exhale, into the shroud that enveloped her. In what passed for a last burst of speed, the Lethifold glided over the rest of her head, her eyes scarcely processing any change in the void. _Let me hold you now, shh._

She had not dreamed of speaking. Slowly, she felt the monstrous weight sink into her thin body, and each breath drew her further and further into the unfamiliar presence.

Luna gasped, gulping at whatever precious trove of air might have hidden between herself and the hammock. Her last solace was that the enchantment would hold her as long as some spark of life endured, long enough to sustain the magic. She would not feel herself falling.


End file.
